


The Other Kind of Apocalypse

by PunkHazard



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Gen, sllice of life, zombie apocalypse AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 11:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1509374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkHazard/pseuds/PunkHazard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three months ago, the Breach collapsed moments after Newt drifted with his kaiju brain carcass. Everyone thought that was the end of it, until the virus surfaced in California of all places, then spread to every place that had ever been exposed to Kaiju Blue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Kind of Apocalypse

**Author's Note:**

> incredibly self-indulgent genfic with all my favorite tropes (zombie apocalypse + characters robinson crusoeing it up sans racism). read: this shit will probably do absolutely nothing for anyone who isn't me sorry HAHAHAHA
> 
> alternative title: i put way too much thought into this and not in the good way

No one should've been surprised, though they were, that the Weis are out of their group of thirteen the best at first-aid. (Surgery, they leave to Geiszler.)

It's pretty logical in hindsight, so Herc lets them clean and wrap the bite on Chuck's arm, though their expressions said that they didn't really see the point, with the flesh around his wound and up to his shoulder already inflamed and greying, iridescent blue lighting up his veins. They're speaking to him quietly, the back of Jin's head obscuring Chuck's face from the rest of the group, but then they nod, each of them shaking his hand, and back off.

"Mako," Cheung says, picking Max up and plopping the dog into Jin's arms, "he wants you to do it."

Mako... Mako nods. Stacker presses his lips into a thin line. Aleksis and Sasha pull the triplets aside, already planning out their next move as Jin ushers Max into the other room, then shuts the door. Hermann doesn't speak and neither, for once, does Newt; this is entirely Ranger business.

Raleigh looks helpless-- part of him moving toward Mako, the rest of him fixed on Herc. "There has to be another way," he says weakly. "We just-- we shouldn't do anything we can't take back, you know?"

 _Do what?_ Herc wants to ask, the question already at the tip of his tongue. _It's Chuck; Chuck is strong and he's good and he's so **young**_ \--

Mako reaches for the pistol holstered at her hip, fingers curling around Chuck's as she kneels next to him. Tendo puts a hand on Raleigh's arm and shakes his head at the younger man's stricken expression, but he holds him in check.

"No," Herc says, voice cracking. "No, we don't-- we're not going to--"

Stacker puts a hand on his shoulder but he shrugs it off, taking one hesitant step to where Chuck's sitting on the floor, back against the wall. He's breathing shallowly, face pale and eyes wide, red-rimmed. The bones in Herc's splinted wrist twinge. 

If he'd had full use of both arms, Chuck wouldn't have put himself in the way, he wouldn't have intercepted a lunge meant for him, he wouldn't have--

"Seriously," Chuck says, sounding older than he ever has to Herc's ears. "Just get this over with."

Herc moves forward again, eyes on the weapon in Mako's hand. 

"There's nothing you can do for him," Cheung says, stepping in front of him, flanked by both younger brothers. They're strong, and skilled, but so's Herc-- and out of the four of them, only one is desperate. Mako squeezes Chuck's hand, wiping the cold sweat off his brow and gently calling his attention back to her face, away from the triplets' backs.

"So, what, we put him down? Like a _fucking dog_?"

Chuck's brief, offended glare does nothing to soften his next few words, but he says it just loudly enough to pierce the red fog clouding Herc's mind: "Dad, back off."

Herc ignores him, hands fisting white-knuckled into Cheung's collar when the younger man bumps him back again. "What would you do, then? If your brothers got bitten?"

He's silent for a long second, just enough time to give Herc that sliver of hope that some sense made it through his fuzzy skull. Jin and Hu start when Cheung shoves a forearm under each of their noses, leans forward into Herc's face and he snarls, _This._ He doesn't look at them when they pull his arms down, forcing his fists open and slipping their hands in; just inhales and says, more gently this time, "If you're not prepared to stay with him, then you had better be ready to leave him behind. He deserves at least this much."

"Ranger," Stacker warns. "I'll take it from here."

"We're going ahead," Cheung answers, shouldering Herc out of the way. He looks over his shoulder, locks eyes with Chuck, then turns away again. "We're not too far out from the harbor, so be set to move. Doctors?"

Newt and Hermann stand up, the latter picking up his cane and leaning heavily on it. Both of them look relieved.

 _Take care of my old man,_ Chuck had said.

Cheung thinks, _We're fucking trying_.

* * *

"Solar panels," Jin says to Gottlieb once they've climbed to the roof of the residential-sector building they've reappropriated as a base. He keeps his tone deliberately even, mind focused on survival and away from their comrade. The kaiju's next attack was supposed to come out of the Breach, not as a disease-- but the only thing they can do about it is to deal, so they don't dwell on it further. "Batteries, maintenance kits, spare parts. What else do we need?"

"This plan relies on building a self-sustainable environment," Newt answers, ticking off necessary supplies on his fingers. "Topsoil, gardening supplies, seeds, rain barrels, water purifiers, fishing gear. Edible plants, too, whatever you can fit. We gotta able to survive indefinitely on the water. Also, vitamin C or our teeth will fall out and we all die of scurvy. I'm thinking potted lemon trees."

"We know where to find plant nurseries," Hu says, nodding. "And hardware stores. Not sure how to set up a garden, though."

"Just get a bunch of two-by-fours and lots of dirt," Newt answers, "we'll get a raised bed going. The dirt should replenish itself, as long as we manage the nitrogen and soil acidity. Did a thesis on it. You got that, right?"

"Sure."

"We can rewire the ships to run on solar instead of gas but we'll need fuel for the meantime," Hermann says. "I'm aware that you three and Miss Mori know your way around circuitry. I also have some files on inverters you should take a look at."

"We have the keys for four boats," Hu says, fishing said keys out of his pockets. "We were thinking one for living on, one for storage and power, one for water and food. One for emergencies. Life boats for transportation. We'll grab ship maintenance supplies, too. I don't think barnacles got the memo that the world has ended."

Newt laughs, grinning wide at Hu's quip but he quickly turns serious again, almost vibrating with uncontained energy. "We'll let Pentecost know," he says, "you three are taking off from here?"

Cheung nods, moving to the edge of the roof and leaning on the concrete edging to look over. "We're taking the fire escape down."

"Good luck," Hermann says, straightening up and saluting. "We'll be awaiting your return."

As soon as the scientists have left, Jin wraps his arms around Cheung's shoulders, buries his face against the back of his neck and squeezes. Cheung knows exactly what this is about, so he lets his brother hold on for a while longer, Jin muttering into his back. _Don't you dare, bro. Don't you fucking dare._

Hu's grip on his hand hasn't loosened since they were still in the apartment, but they tighten again, bony fingers grating painfully. 

「Hu,」he says,「that hurts.」

「Don't care.」

「We need to go soon.」

「Don't care.」

Cheung sighs. The crack of a gunshot going off from downstairs makes all of them grimace, but it's such a familiar sound and situation by now that none of them flinch. 「We need to secure those boats and take them to the shore,」 he says, shaking his brothers off and swinging one leg over the wall along the edge of the roof, boot hitting the fire escape's heavy metal struts. When they drop to the street, Jin darts to the edge of the building to look around the corner, giving them the all-clear.

* * *

「Crew's gonna be a mess by the time we get back,」Hu says matter-of-factly as they slip into the Dome's naval bay. It'd been a chore to make their way through the complex, but tedious more than difficult, given how well they know the place. They had briefly dropped into Crimson Typhoon's hangar-- Jin saluted the mech, but their goal was a fuel loader. Hermann and Newt had also presented them with a list of crucial supplies from their lab.

「This is why I wanted to take off with the three of us,」Cheung grouses, but they know it's half-hearted. In the beginning, more people had been a drag on their speed and supplies. Once they'd found a place to establish themselves, the extra hands had been nothing but an asset-- especially the scientists, and their plan to establish a safer, more permanent base out at sea.

Three months ago, the Breach collapsed moments after Newt drifted with his kaiju brain carcass. Everyone thought that was the end of it, until the virus surfaced in California of all places, then began to spread to every place that had ever been exposed to Kaiju Blue. Probably, Geiszler said, they were tired of kaiju trying and failing to destroy humanity so the precursors opted to try something else. 

(Theoretically, Hermann calculated, the virus should have run its course, given prompt and effective government action. _Theoretically_ , he'd stressed, bitterly pessimistic but desperate to be proven wrong.)

The patrol boats are empty when they hop on board. Refueling the vessels and then grabbing spare diesel tanks, tarps, rope, toolboxes and whatever other supplies they scavenge from the docking area takes some time, but the water purifiers on it are working, and they make short work of the solar panels and batteries installed in the area. 

「We need to make two trips,」Jin observes from the deck of 001 as Hu hits a switch to open the main doors, then clambers onto 002 and takes the helm. 

Cheung waves from the deck of 003.「So we'll make two trips. There's a landing point near our HQ, but not on the docks. Big drop, though. Bring rope.」

* * *

After a certain point, given the infecteds' lack of motor coordination, uninfected humans became more of a threat than any of the undead. As far as Cheung's concerned, the farther they are from civilization and easily-accessible areas, the better. By the time they've anchored and tied all four vessels to an outcropping, scaled the rough, patchy stone wall back to land and arrived back at their building, the sun has dipped halfway under the horizon. They climb the fire escape again, just in time to see Aleksis bring up the rest of their supplies.

Jin trots up to him, picks up a duffel bag of canned goods and unperishable food. "Everyone ready to move?"

"No," Aleksis grunts handing a pack to Cheung, then another one to Hu, "but what choice do we have?"

Sasha heads up the rest of the congregation as they arrive to the roof, all of them with bags of supplies of varying weight strapped to their backs. The triplets descend the fire escape first, followed by Herc and Tendo, then Newt and Hermann in the middle, Mako last, after Pentecost and Raleigh. Herc pointedly looks at no one, his nose and eyes clear but scuffed red.

Cheung leads the way along a winding route back to where they'd anchored the boats, his brothers forging ahead to point out and clear the safest paths. Jin rappels down the wall first with Max under his arm, hops the last meter to land himself onto the deck of 001 and ties the end of the rope to the rail. He turns on the ship's headlamps as the last of the day's light fades. 

Aleksis practically carries Hermann down with him, pride dinged but happy to follow Jin to the farthest boat to start on tinkering with circuitry while everyone else clambers down. Mako and Cheung stand guard on the shore as everyone descends, Mako with a self-forged sword (one she'd kept for years hanging decoratively in her room) and Cheung with the sledgehammer she'd handed him.

"Good work," Stacker says to the Weis, once everyone's landed safely and stowed away their supplies. He looks weary, stretched thin (which is expected, given his relationship with the Hansens), but still manages to muster the authority to put Cheung at ease. "We have enough supplies to last nearly a month," he tells them on the deck of 001, "but I expect that everything will be up and running before then."

"We have enough fuel to get out to open ocean," Jin reports in turn, "panels should take a day to hook up. One boat will stay full on diesel fuel, for emergencies, but we expect to anchor the rest to a seabed. My brothers and I will use the lifeboats to make supply runs back to shore." 

Stacker nods, gratitude in his eyes and the set of his mouth, and motions for everyone to start moving. Tendo promptly takes control of 001 with Herc and the scientists, Stacker stationing himself at 002 with the Russians and Mako at 004 with Raleigh. The triplets happily gather at the helm of 003.

"We'll head out to the middle of Victoria Harbour for the night," Pentecost announces, "and make more progress in the day. Once we've marked our coordinates and anchored the boats, there will be plenty of time to set up properly. Any questions?"

* * *

"It has been a very long time," Sasha says as Hu hops onto 002 to join her in watching the sun rise, "since my alarm clock was not clawing at the door."

He laughs, leaning over the metal gating and squinting east, the sky purple-pink where the light has only just begun to reach. "What was it today?"

"Aleksis snoring."

Grinning through a yawn, Hu elbows her on the shoulder and sits on the middle bar, arms crossed over the top of the rail. He knows better than to tempt fate by saying something as optimistic as he feels, so he kicks his feet instead and looks at her. "Did he keep you up all night, lieutenant?"

"Yes," she laughs, "sawing logs. The Marshal slept through it, no matter how uncomfortable the sleeping bags."

"My brothers and I slept on deck," Hu says, pointing at two occupied sleeping bags on the far end of 003's deck, one unzipped and laid out and the other used as a blanket. "They stayed up to talk, I just knocked out.

"You three are heading back into city for supplies?"

"That's the plan."

"Aleksis and I will join you, if it is not too much trouble."

"That would be great. More hands." Hu sighs, glancing at 004, where Mako's wandered onto deck. She waves at them, moves to the shortest distance between 003 and 004, closes the gap with one smooth jump, then does the same between the triplets' ship at the Russians'.

"Good morning," she says. Cheung and Jin sit up, the sound of Mako's journey across boats just loud enough to shake them out of the hazy half-sleep they'd been basking in. 

"You okay, Mako?"

Mako joins Hu on the rail, their elbows brushing. "Do I have a choice?"

Sasha puts one hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. The triplets had missed most of yesterday's excitement; Sasha did not. There hadn't been space or time for a proper burial, so they'd covered Chuck's body and moved him to the bed he'd been using. Mako's eyes are a bit swollen, her voice somewhat hoarse, but when Cheung and Jin join them, she gives them both a grateful smile.

Cheung slings one arm over her shoulders, a gesture he reserves for only two other people, and ruffles her hair. "The five of us are going to finish up the supply runs," he tells her, all business, "you need to stay on board and help Gottlieb hook up solar panels."

Mako nods, then checks her watch. "Time to wake everyone up?"

Jin flashes her a thumbs up, but gestures at 001. "Let the Sergeant sleep for a while longer, I hate seeing him mope. Scientists won't have to be up until we're at the permanent mooring. Becket can take an extra hour or two as well."

"You three should rest as soon as you come back from shore," she answers, leaning into Cheung's side and sapping his warmth against the chill morning, "you worked very hard yesterday."

"No way we'd be able to sleep with so much left to do," Jin retorts, already checking a list on his phone. The phone's cellular and data functions died when the service stations in Hong Kong went down, but its core functions are still intact. "We'll just end up having nightmares about it and kicking each other awake."

* * *

Mako has 004 hooked up, refueled, stocked with emergency supplies and anchored loosely some distance away from the three main patrol boats by the time the Weis and Kaidanovskys return. The former move bags and bags of dirt and compost, along with little pots of herb sprouts and starter vegetables onto 001. Jin even hauls aboard two lemon trees, rooted in large clay pots. ("For vitamin C," he'd said to helpless laughter from Newt.)

The Russians emerge from their lifeboat with half a dozen twin-sized mattress pads, which they lay out between three rooms below 003's deck. Aleksis rolls up several rain barrels to set up on the deck of 001, while the Weis spend the rest of the day hooking up solar panels and testing the water purifiers. 

It takes nearly a week to set up 001 under Newt's careful supervision. The entire area below deck transformed into a water reservoir lined with dozens of barrels, while most of the deck itself has been lined with raised beds, vegetables already planted and growing. Tendo and Herc had handled most of the planting, the Sergeant pointedly avoiding Mako and Stacker. 

The other two boats take far less time-- all their mechanical supplies and leftover food are stowed away on 002, the stock growing every time the triplets make a run to shore, three of them no strangers to hoarding resources. Newt and Hermann set up a lab in one of the spare rooms, though Gottlieb lets Newt have most of it; only one of them specializes in kaiju pathology, after all. It's mostly computers and samples; the most expensive parts were riveted to the Shatterdome's floor.

The Weis' one concession to frivolity is a can of yellow spraypaint, which Jin uses to emblazon their insignia onto the door of the room they share with Mako and Raleigh. The Kaidanovskys borrow it and roughly stencil a skull onto their door, cheerfully ignoring Herc and Tendo's suggestions. Hermann takes up the entire space on his, Newt's and Stacker's door with the PPDC logo before Newt has a chance to cover it with kaiju, then throws the can overboard after confirming that no one else has need of it.

* * *

Mako's strung up a hammock at her end of their room, right over Raleigh's cheap foam mattress. Hu had overlaid several spare sleeping bags, then covered them with a sheet and secured the whole package to the floor, the makeshift bed more than big enough for all three brothers.

It's rare for all five of them to be awake and inside at the same time, but this night, Raleigh lobs a basketball across the room to Jin, grinning at the ecstatic expressions on the Weis' faces, barely visible in the dim light. "Aleksis said you three would like that," he tells them. "Picked it up on our last run to shore this morning. There's an air pump in the lab, too."

"I'm gonna kiss that hairy giant on the mouth," Jin says, fervently sincere. Hu catches the next pass, then tosses the ball across the room to Mako, who's sitting sideways in her hammock, legs dangling. 

"Sasha won't like that," Raleigh laughs, catching the ball when Mako drops it into his lap.

"Sasha would _love_ that," Hu shoots back, raising both eyebrows. "So would Mako."

"Don't use me as a scapegoat for your brother wanting to kiss the lieutenant," Mako answers indignantly. "It's also nearly midnight, so _oyasuminasai._ "

Raleigh turns off the light and tumbles back into bed as the triplets do the same. The only things he hears as sleep drags him under is the lap of ocean against 003's hull and soft, calm breathing.

* * *

Things have settled down enough in the last few weeks that even Max is relaxing, though Herc has to pull him back from one cluster of vertically-stacked raised beds before the dog has a chance to roll on the new furrows of beets and lettuce, beans, pea plants, spinach, potato plants and yams. Newt had even insisted on a plot just for planting bamboo-- the utility of a fast-growing, stiff wood substitute escapes none of them.

( _Also_ , Hu had said, _the shoots are delicious. Not just for pandas._ )

Several tomato plants' vines have already latched themselves to some wire mesh lining the rails, a young cat that had stowed away last week on one of the lifeboats when the Weis were raiding Hong Kong for dog food and toys is basking in the sun. All in all, things are so relaxed that Herc has had plenty of time to regret every one of his decisions since this whole situation began. 

Tendo looks up from the furrows he's dug, glances at a compost bin they'd set up, wipes his face with the back of one arm, then turns his attention back to Herc. "Feeling alright, Sarge?"

He answers, not ungently, "You don't want to open that can of worms, Tendo."

Tendo sighs, tapping his trowel against the wooden edge of his plot of dirt. Alison had evacuated safely with their son, had made sure to stay in touch with Vanessa Gottlieb while they were at it, but there'd been no way to know for sure ever since the Dome lost communications. The beads on his rosary have been worn even smoother since the Breach closed than anytime before; the enemy you know is, after all, far less threatening than the one you don't. 

"Maybe I do, Sarge."

"I don't have anything to say, mate."

"How're things between you and the Marshal? Miss Mori's really hurting too, y'know?"

Herc doesn't reply, but his digging becomes a bit more aggressive, lines on his face deepening. 

"The Kaidanovskys really wanted to room with the Weis," Tendo continues, well aware that he's poking at a wasp's nest, "but since you and the Marshal aren't exactly on speaking terms still, we had to switch things up a bit."

Herc isn't so unprofessional that he'd compromise the crew's safety or progress in his own grief, and Stacker knows it too. The other man is giving him time, and space (which he badly needs), but he still can't bring himself to look at his old friend without suppressing the urge to throw him overboard. 

"I imagine we'll resolve it eventually," he says at last.

Tendo pats him on the shoulder, leaving a dirt handprint on his shirt. "You ever need to talk, brother, you know where to find me."

* * *

"I played a game like this once," Cheung says, perched on the railing of 004 next to Pentecost. He's in nothing but a pair of swim trunks, both brothers doing laps in the water with Mako between their boat and 003. Stacker looks at him, eyebrows raised. He's stripped down to swimwear as well, the five of them wrapping up a routine check of their emergency patrol boat in preparation for typhoon season.

"Really."

"Not exactly like this. No zombies, no boats." He mimes clicking a mouse, then gestures in the direction of 001. "But planting food, managing resources. Fishing. Things like that."

"I didn't realize you played time management games," Stacker says, mustache twitching. "I always pegged you as more of a Counter-Strike type."

"I was one when that came out."

"Civilization? I beat III six times while I was in the RAF."

"Played a bootleg Civ IX in Academy." 

Stacker nods, arms crossing. "It's been a while since I've felt old. Thanks for that, Ranger."

"No problem, sir." Cheung watches his brothers climb a ladder back onto the deck of 003, turn and wave at him. "Race you back? You might feel young again, I'm not such a strong swimmer."

"Soon," he says. "Right now, I need to speak with you."

"Marshal?"

"I'm running low on medication."

Cheung says immediately, "We'll get more. You had a huge stock in the Shatterdome."

"It won't last forever, and if my condition worsens, I'll need someone to hold it together." Stacker puts a hand on his arm; less fixed point, more human. 

The younger man doesn't like it, but he looks staunchly unsurprised. "Mako," he says. "The Sergeant, too. They'll take the lead."

"I need you and your brothers to do for them what you've done for me."

"Sure," he replies. "No problem. Just don't ask me to be responsible for their lives. Two is a nightmare as it is."

"You could do it," Stacker tells him, thinking of himself and Mako, Cheung and his little brothers, all of them responsible and balanced and armed to the teeth with skills they'll need for survival, "if you were ever inclined to."

"I couldn't; I would abandon everyone and hermit up somewhere with my brothers." Cheung returns Stacker's raised eyebrow with a dry smirk of his own. "You underestimate my sense of self-preservation, Marshal."

"You underestimate your own potential."

"Or you're overestimating me."

For all the ways Cheung has changed since Stacker first met him, some things never will. Still, he knows that Rangers' perceptions of themselves are pretty often far off the mark-- especially the Weis, who had told him when he'd first asked them to stay with the group that if things began to look bleak, they would split off. 

(Either their definition of 'bleak' is worse than 'damn near hopeless and everyone will probably die' or they just aren't as cold as they like to think they are. Stacker is fairly certain it's the latter.)

"There's plenty of time to figure out which of us is right."

Cheung scratches the back of his neck and bumps Stacker with a shoulder, retying the drawstrings on his shorts and canting his head toward the water. "If that's all you were concerned about, sir, we should head back."

"Hm. Race you."

* * *

"It seems to me," Hermann says as he lashes a cover to a barrel of water, stumbling against the keg when the boat tosses again, "that we could be in for a bit of a ride."

"Shocker," Newt says, struggling with the last of the larger tubs and grabbing a tarp, then slamming a porthole shut. "Thanks, Captain Obvious!"

They help Aleksis and Sasha line the upper deck with the tarp next, rail to rail to protect delicate plants, most of them beginning to flower. By the time they finish on 001 and move onto 002 via a plank Newt extends across their decks, Tendo drops a sea anchor to reinforce their moorings, then settles himself behind the helm. Herc emerges from under 002's deck, after having strapped and tied down everything in storage-- solar panels, toolboxes, preserved food. Newt dives past him to double-check the condition of his makeshift lab. 

"The waves are less likely to break so far out," Hermann's explaining to Stacker, "but the water will be choppy. Risk of capsizing is low on military vessels, but it would be best if we had someone in control of each boat, so they do not crash into each other."

"Understood, Dr. Gottlieb." 

Stacker looks up, searching the decks for someone to take 003, but Herc's the one who meets his eyes. He doesn't expect to hear his own name out of Herc's mouth ever again, but that has nothing to do with the situation at hand so he asks instead, "Did you hear that?"

Herc nods, moving immediately for 003. "Got it, Marshal."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

Hermann gives him an uneasy look, but snaps to attention when Stacker claps him on the shoulder. "Head inside, find something to hold onto. Keep Dr. Geiszler in check, and we'll handle the rest from here."

* * *

Jin whoops, ribs knocking painfully against 004's rail when the boat crests a wave, then dips into its trough. Cheung looks over his shoulder, feet braced against the rubber mat on the floor, both hands on the wheel. Hu laughs, sticks his head out the window and yells for Jin to come back inside.

「If you fall overboard, neither of us is gonna come after you!」

「Liar!」 Jin retorts, but he ducks back inside anyway, pulling the door shut behind him, clothes still damp from his swim over. 「You'd both jump right in.」

「Beacons are on, so we can't lose the rest of the group even if we drift a bit.」Cheung flings a towel into Jin's face, pulls him closer to Hu and then turns the wheel to direct their boat bow-first into the oncoming waves. One of the perks of working odd jobs as younger boys in Hong Kong: you learn pretty quick how to steer a ship in a storm.「It looks like night outside, these clouds are heavy.」

「Yeah, anything not tied down is gonna get tossed over.」Hu pauses, looks at Jin and dives for the receiver dialed to 002's frequency. "Hey, does anyone read? Over."

「I read you,」 Mako answers. After a long silence and a weary sigh, she adds, 「Over.」

「Where's the cat? Over.」

「Hasn't budged from Aleksis's pillow since last night, over.」

「Filthy traitor. Never trust a cat, Mako. Over.」

Mako smiles at the sound of staticky laughter in the background of Hu's missive, a loud yelp dissolving into an adrenaline-fueled cheer with the toss of another particularly high wave.「I'll keep that in mind. Is that all, over?」

「Yeah, that's all.」A brief silence, then the sound of someone slamming into a wall rings over the comm, followed by a curse in Cantonese. Cheung's _Everyone okay?_ fades out under Hu's cheerful「Thanks, Mako! Over and out.」

* * *

"Everyone alive?" is the first thing Hu asks when he and Jin clamber back aboard 002, Cheung steering 004 back to its usual spot and dropping anchor before diving into the water. The younger Weis hang out by the rail until their brother reaches the base of 002's hull, then lower the ladder for him.

"Everyone's alive," Raleigh confirms, coming out from the control room to greet them on deck, eyes on the slowly brightening horizon. "Glad to see you guys didn't get swept out."

"Remember who you're talking to, Becket." Cheung snorts, wiping seawater out of his eyes and allowing Jin to towel off his head before grabbing the whole thing and wrapping it around his shoulders. Hu slings an arm around his waist. "I'm heading back to our room to collapse. Wake me up when breakfast starts."

"Dry clothes downstairs," Raleigh answers, smiling warmly. (Watching brothers together does that to him; it's practically involuntary.) "The cat's back in your bed too."

"Joke's on her," Jin quips as they turn and move as one for 003, "we don't get into bed with Russian defectors."

「That's funny, coming from you.」

「We really need to name that furball.」

By the time Mako drops into their room for a wrench she'd left in her hammock, the cat has settled itself in the dip under Hu's ass, the pilot himself asleep on his stomach with his face tucked in the crook of Cheung's neck and one arm stretched over his chest to grab onto Jin's shirt. Jin has his back pressed to his big brother's side, head pinning down his upper arm and hand tightly curled around Cheung's wrist. They've all changed and dumped their damp, salt-caked clothing onto the pile in the corner, blanket tangled around their legs.

The triplets don't usually crash like this (Cheung looks both at ease and wildly uncomfortable pinned under the weight of both brothers), but the combination of being dry, warm, and safe is hard enough to achieve in the world as it is so Mako grabs her wrench and draws the shades over their room's porthole before ducking out.

* * *

When Hu hits the deck on his back for the fourth time, Aleksis winces and gestures idly at his wife. "Should be breaking them up, no?"

Jin and Cheung sit on either side of him, arms crossed over their chests. Everyone on board is much leaner now than when everything started, but it's no excuse to fall out of practice. "We're not putting ourselves in Sasha's line of fire," Jin says firmly, "but if you want to do our beloved brother a favor, that is on you."

Sasha's tied her hair back into a tight ponytail, dark roots streaking out from her scalp. She's not wearing makeup and all her nail polish chipped off months ago, but she doesn't look any less intimidating than she does decked out in full battle armor-- especially when she's wrestling Hu to the deck and bending his arm behind his back. 

Aleksis had shaved off his hair and most of his beard, keeps them cropped close with the buzzer the triplets had scavenged. (Herc and Stacker borrow it, too-- the brothers had tried to convince Raleigh to shave the thing on his face off as well, but failed.)

"I think," Aleksis says after a few minutes of silence, wherein Hu knees Sasha twice in her ribs and her nails stop a millimeter short of opening up a few gashes on his hip (she's careful not to; no one on board can afford a potential infection), "they will work out on their own."

A shadow falls over them and Jin looks up, grinning when Mako looks down. Unlike Sasha, she cut her hair rather than let it grow, a rough pixie cut framing her face. (Raleigh ran into a wall the first time he saw it, too busy looking at her to watch where he was going. Not that Jin could blame him.)

"Lunch is finished," she says, eyes bright. "From our first harvest. Fish steamed with garlic and lemon. Potatoes. Beans. No rice, but nothing canned or from a tube."

"We should find some chickens," Jin muses as he pushes himself to his feet, "but I'm not sure there are any still alive in Hong Kong." He doesn't say anything about Mako's dejected ' _no rice_ ', but he and his brothers understand, even if no one else does. No one goes hungry, even though they do carefully ration supplies, but he hasn't felt full in a long time. Raleigh complains with them about losing muscle mass, but only Mako joins them when they bemoan the lack of rice on board and the genuine pain in the ass it would be to try and cultivate.

"Lieutenant," Hu calls weakly, Sasha sitting on the small of his back with her foot planted between his shoulders, "lunch!"

She lets him go, pulls him to his feet and all five pilots follow Mako to the deck of 002. The spread is modest, but even the scientists are present-- Tendo and Herc are busy re-enacting the battle they'd waged to land the four fat, medium-sized fish in front of them, steamed over a bamboo fire with small potatoes roasted in the ashes. 

Mako settles down between Stacker and Raleigh, the triplets and Kaidanovskys scattered around Newt and Hermann, who for once seem to be in agreement about something.

Max drops his head onto Mako's knee, turning big droopy bulldog-eyes on her and drools a bit on her leg. He'd already eaten, but Mako gives him a piece of potato, greedily devoured, while the cat bumps her head against Jin's shoulder and plants herself in his lap. Hu gives her tail an affectionate tug and rips the head off one of the fish. The cat takes it and disappears, much to his chagrin.

「What are you so unhappy about,」Cheung teases as he meticulously removes the spine from a half-eaten seabream and sets it aside to make the rest of the fish available, Tendo and Stacker doing the same to each of the other fish, 「she's exactly like you.」

The meal winds down nearly an hour later, Newt standing as cleanup begins and waving his arms to draw everyone's attention. "We," he says, "that is, me and Hermann but mostly me-- figured out how to neutralize the Kaiju Blue in a human."

"It won't, unfortunately, reverse the process in anyone who's been infected," says Hermann, "but one can be inoculated to it, as Newton and I have been."

The silence that follows stretches out for a long minute, only the waves lapping against metal hull are audible while the rest of the crew tries to process the implications of their breakthrough. In the end, they're Rangers and not scientists, so when Aleksis shrugs and looks in Herc's direction, he decides to speak up.

Herc asks, sounding as if a strong wind could blow him over, "You injected yourself with an untested vaccine?"

"We had to test it somehow," Newt grumbles.

"We modeled the reaction first," Hermann tells him, "I did most of the programming, while Dr. Geiszler cultivated the compounds. We are developing more in order to vaccinate everyone on board, and then it should be safe for us to distribute on land to survivors and quite possibly the United Nations."

"And," Stacker asks, "what would you have done if Dr. Geiszler had been infected instead of inoculated?"

Newt winces, but Hermann sets his jaw, hand tightening around his cane. "Whatever I would have had to, sir."

"Good work," Pentecost says, looking around at the crew gathered around him. "Once you've developed enough of the vaccine, we'll be prepared to move. What's your timetable, Dr. Geiszler?"

"A month, maybe. Two if we want to have a surplus."

"We move in two months," Stacker says. 

"Just when we were getting comfortable," Jin sighs to Raleigh, who pats him on the shoulder.

* * *

"We part here," Stacker says, handing a bag packed with a dozen vials of vaccine to Cheung. Fixed-point Pentecost, who Cheung always likes to see and finds easy to deal with, keeps his tone neutral and manages to sound like he's announcing canned beans for dinner, the warmth in his eyes notwithstanding. "If you don't find us at the quarantine zone, we'll be back on 003."

They'd left Tendo, the scientists and Kaidanovskys on board-- still the safest place in the entire region. One engineer, two Rangers and two scientists who are most effective in a lab and out of the field should be enough to keep the place running indefinitely, if all else fails.

Mako and Raleigh send them off with an exuberant group hug, returned awkwardly, but sincerely. They follow Stacker onto the boat and Herc steps forward.

He's tense, still wary (he and Cheung haven't exchanged so much as a word since Chuck got bitten), but he looks at all three of them and extends a hand. "We wouldn't've made it without you lot," he says, voice choked as Cheung takes it, "be safe. Come back. We'll be waiting, you hear?"

Jin and Hu snap off clean salutes and Cheung nods, slinging his pack of supplies over his shoulder. The triplets are traveling light, confident that they can scrounge up anything they'd need-- without pesky things like laws and people getting in their way, it's shaping up to be a much easier endeavor than trying to survive long enough to grow up.

"Drive safe, Sergeant. We will see you soon."

As soon as 004's out of sight, Jin hefts an old pipe in his hands and the three of them head toward the dockyard gates, easily scaling the wide-spaced wire mesh fence and dropping to the other side.「There's no way Liu would go to the quarantine zone,」 Jin says, not even bothering to consider the possibility that their old friend could be dead, 「he's too paranoid.」

「We'll start from the Bone Slums,」Cheung answers, picking a building and kicking in the window of a basement gambling area.「Even if he doesn't agree to come back with us, we can at least make sure he's immune.」

The basement is still occupied, three undead in expensive-looking suits shuffling slowly around a half-played game of mahjong. Jin dispatches them while his brothers loot the bodies for hefty knives, large enough and sharp enough to sever tendons and muscle without too much effort.

「Just when we were getting comfortable,」 Hu sighs, turning his new weapon in hand and adjusting his grip on it, taking a few practice swipes at the air. 「What next?」


End file.
